


found family

by sadifura



Category: Street Fighter
Genre: Discussions of Child Neglect, Found Family, Gen, parental abandonment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-01
Updated: 2018-10-01
Packaged: 2019-07-21 01:00:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16149245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sadifura/pseuds/sadifura
Summary: Sakura realizes two things:-she had a father- she has a father figure.





	found family

**Author's Note:**

> THIS WAS THE FIRST FANFIC I'VE WRITTEN IN AWHILE HAHA  
> i just...wrote this from my own head so...it's not gonna be very good

Sakura didn’t really know who her father was. 

Sure, she’s seen him in pictures. She’s seen the pictures, with his eyes blacked out of the photos, all scattered through her mother’s room, through the picture binders strewn in her mother’s closet.

But she’s never met him.

“Mom, who was my dad?” she suddenly asked at the dinner table. Tsukushi’s mouth was agape, food falling out of his mouth. And Sakura’s mother glared, her eyes staring daggers into her heart. 

“We don’t talk about him anymore.”

Sakura stared at her mother in skepticism. “What do you mean, we don’t talk about him anymore? I’ve seen pictures of him in the books in your room–”

“We don’t talk about him anymore!”

Sakura’s mother glared at her, her body shaking. 

“What do you mean?” 

Tsukushi elbowed Sakura, almost silently telling her to “shut up, stop asking questions,” hoping silently that Sakura wasn’t sabotaging her relationship with her mother even further.

“It was nothing!” 

A lie. A total lie, by the look on Sakura’s mother’s face. Sakura pressed further.

“What do you mean? Did he die? Did he like…run away? How come I haven’t even MET my dad, anyway?!”

“It’s better that you didn’t!”

An anger burned in Sakura, an anger she’s never felt before.

“Well, why not?! He could’ve been a nice, normal guy as far as I know! What did he ever do?!”

The anger that burned in Sakura burned twice as hard in Mrs. Kasugano. “He wasn’t like us! I didn’t have the heart to tell you!”

Sakura stood up, pushing her hands on the table. “What do you mean, he wasn’t like us?! I don’t know anything about my dad! What did he ever do to you?!”

With a shout, Mrs. Kasugano said suddenly: “He was just like you!”

—

Just like you. “Just like me?” she muttered aloud, as Mrs. Kasugano wiped the sweat from her brow. Tsukushi had already left the table; “I don’t want dessert tonight,” was his excuse, but in reality, he just didn’t wanna hear the screaming match between the two.

“What do you mean, just like me? I didn’t—”

“I see you, with your little Ansatsuken Karate headband, and your little street fighting misadventures with that idiot boy and that green freak man and that haughty stuck-up friend of yours. I see it and every time, I’m reminded of Kekkashi.”

“Kekkashi?”

“Kekkashi Kasugano. We met on a school trip; I thought he was normal at first, charming even. We dated, he got me pregnant, and that’s how we had you.”

“Then why doesn’t he live here anymore?”

 

Mrs. Kasugano spat and averted her eyes. “I soon realized the bastard didn’t even care about family. He only cared about his Ansatsuken training and his stupid little revenge against a rival karate master I don’t even give a crap about. He left before Tsukushi was even born, and you probably don’t even remember him considering you were only about four when he left you.”

Sakura stared into the distance, heart wavering. He was like me, she thought as she watched her mother calm down. He was like me. He was like…me.

“I…I don’t want you to grow up like him! I don’t want you to be obsessed with petty revenge and fighting and all that bullshit that your father was involved in! Please, Sakura! Don’t be like Kekkashi! Please drop this fighting thing and be…normal!”

Sakura sighed, her mind feeling oddly calm. “I’ll think about it.”

She walked up to bed, falling asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

—

A dream; a dream of a man with spiked brown hair in a red headband standing above her. 

“Aren’t you beautiful, Sakura?” he said, his voice deep and pleasant.

This must have been Kekkashi. A latent memory of him.

“Where are we going, Dad?” the dream Sakura asked, her tiny voice sounding no more than a whisper.   
“Well, kiddo, we’re going to the fields to train! I’ve even got a little headband for you!” 

“Yay!” she exclaimed. The two set out on their journey, going to the fields and—

—a flash of light.

—

“Dad!” 

Sakura woke up, sweating, screaming, panting.

A dream.

A dream about Dad.

Dad.

Dad.

A dad she’ll never even know.

A dad she only has distant memories of.

A dad that even her mother shuns.

“I have to see Dan.”

Dan. Dan Hibiki.

The one person she knows from his little house/dojo combination thing, using some sort of Ansatsuken she doesn’t recognize that he calls “Saikyo Style”. 

Dan Hibiki was the only person she could trust with this.

She’s heard him talk about his father many times; the happy times, the sad times, the nightmares—she’s heard him talk about all of them. If there was an expert on daddy issues, it was probably him. 

She had to see him.

Sakura rushed, putting on sweatpants and a pair of old shoes. No time for her fighting getup (her school uniform); this had to do for now. 

She ran through the fields to get to his house (this was a shortcut), not even minding the abrasions she got from all the uncut spiny grass and willows. 

“Dan! Dan!” she cried, hoping he’d be outside, tending to his garden, or training, or doing SOMETHING that would involve him being outside.

Luckily, he heard her.

“Sakura! Are you in any danger?!” 

Unfortunately, he took her saying his name out loud (without honorifics, no less) as her crying for his help.

Sakura had a lot of explaining to do.

—

“Wait, so you’re not in any danger?” Dan tilted his head in confusion, almost like a dog.

“No, Hibiki-san, I’m fine.” 

Dan looked her over, his eyes going over her clothes like a fine-toothed comb. “Wait a minute, waitaminute…why aren’tcha wearing your school uniform?! Ain’t it a school day?!”

Sakura nodded, looking away from him. “Yes, Hibiki-san, it’s a school day.” 

“Y-you’re playin’ hooky?!” Dan wagged his finger. “Sakura, this isn’t like you! You’re a good girl!! You don’t just…skip school!”

Sakura nodded, very aware she was skipping school for her less-than-trivial issue. “Yeah, I know…”

“What happened? Are you sick?”

“No.”

“Are you…oh no! Are you being bullied, dear Sakura?!” Dan was closing his fist, ready to punch this imaginary bully in the face. “If I see that bully you know what I’m gonna do? I’m gonna–” –Dan motions to a nearly disintegrated sandbag, practically exploded, “–do that to him!”

“Hibiki-san, I’m not getting bullied. You don’t need to get yourself arrested.” Sakura was embarrassed at this point, face becoming redder by the second. You never know how any talk with Dan would go, really.

She took a deep breath, and said it. “I’m…having some daddy issues.”

Dan’s facial features softened as he put a hand on her shoulder. “How about we talk about this inside, kid? I’ve got some tea, and I’ve got a toasty new kotatsu we can try!”

Sakura smiled. “Sure.”

—

“So, your dad went off and left you for fighting, eh?”

Sakura nodded. “Yeah…I barely even remember him, but I just…want to see him again. I don’t even know if he’s alive or dead, I just…want a dad.”

Dan smiled at her. “Well, if he doesn’t show his face, I can be your new dad if you want!” He guffawed, a big laugh coming out of his gut. 

“But seriously, Sakura, I know the feeling.” 

Dan looked up at the ceiling, his legs firmly under the kotatsu. “My dad wasn’t even around most of my life; for most of his life, he just fought whatever opponent that was up against him.”

“But I thought your dad was practically perfect.”

“I thought so, too. Turns out, he ditched the family a lot of times. Left me, Mom, and Yuriko just getting by on scrapes to survive. Mom wasn’t even that nice either, so the only time we felt safe was when Father was home.”

Sakura watched Dan as little tears began to form on his eyes.

“He…wasn’t perfect, that’s for sure. But every time he came home, I knew he loved me.” Dan reached out his hand to touch Sakura’s hand and smiled. “And I know your dad probably felt that way, too.”

Sakura thought for a moment, and spoke up. “You know, Dan, you’re right. I kinda…do feel like you’re a brother to me. More of a brother than a father, really, but like…a caretaker-like brother. The brother I never had.”

Dan smiled, tears welling up in his eyes.

“Sakura, you sweetheart! You’re like—like another baby sister to me, too!”

And with that, Dan got up. “Sakura, I might need to get you some oranges, you want some?”

Suddenly—

—she hugged him.

Sakura embraced Dan, crying. 

“Sakura?! What’s wrong?! Did I make you upset?! Did…did my crying make you upset somehow?! Did I do something wrong?!”

Sakura cried, her words incoherent.

“N-no, it’s not that! I just…you’re like family to me. Even more than my own family!!” Sakura, wracked with sobs, fell into Dan’s arms and cried.

And in that moment, they were family.

More than family, in fact.

They were found family.


End file.
